{"id":10526,"date":"2023-04-24T06:00:22","date_gmt":"2023-04-24T05:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bjsm\/?p=10526"},"modified":"2023-04-20T06:23:31","modified_gmt":"2023-04-20T05:23:31","slug":"higher-rates-of-concussion-following-covid-19-infection-in-high-school-athletes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bjsm\/2023\/04\/24\/higher-rates-of-concussion-following-covid-19-infection-in-high-school-athletes\/","title":{"rendered":"Higher Rates of Concussion Following COVID-19 Infection in High School Athletes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keywords: COVID-19, head injury, athletes<\/b><\/p>\n

In this blog we will detail how we found that high school athletes that contracted COVID-19 were over three times more likely to have a concussion following return to sport, compared to their fellow high school athletes. Our study<\/a> (recently published in BJSM) was a grassroots initiative, spurred by sports physicians covering high school sport, throughout the ATI Physical Therapy network (1). Sports physicians anecdotally were noticing that athletes returning to sport from COVID-19 were more likely to suffer a concussion. Due to these ongoing community conversations, a research initiative was enacted to evaluate this particular important sports medicine question. A consortium between ATI Physical Therapy sports medicine team, consisting of physicians, athletic trainers, physical therapists, and leadership, in partnership with clinical epidemiologists from the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery & Rehabilitation at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Sport Injury Prevention Research Centre at the University of Calgary, and the Pharmaco- and Device Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford was created to perform this study.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Why is this study Important?<\/b><\/p>\n

Concussions in high school athletes are a serious problem. Almost 20% of all adolescents in the United States report experiencing a concussion during high school . High school athletes may be at higher risk for sustaining a concussion compared to adult athletes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Coronavirus (COVID-19) infections have impacted adolescent health, long after acute COVID-19 has resolved. Adolescent athletes report a high rate of symptoms resultant from COVID-19, including <\/span>multisystem inflammatory syndrome. Further, COVID-19 may affect the neurological system, potentially impairing cognitive processes (2).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Concussions<\/span> have important repercussions in adolescent and high school athletes, due to their growing brains. While COVID-19 infection rates have been quantified, we do not know the potential consequences of long-term COVID-19 symptoms in adolescents, as they return to high school sport.\u00a0 Understanding the interplay between COVID-19 and concussion rates as high school athletes return to sport could potentially improve clinical examination, decision making, and athlete and parent education.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How did the study go about this?<\/b><\/p>\n

A prospective study over one academic year was performed to evaluate concussions rates in high school athletes that contracted COVID-19 and those that did not. All illnesses and concussions were recorded by athletic trainers over the six state ATI network.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What did this study find?<\/b><\/p>\n

A total of 72,522 athletes participated in high school sports during the 2020-2021 academic school year. A total of 1,273 concussions (No-COVID-19: 1,241; COVID-19: 32) were documented during the school year. High school athletes who sustained a COVID-19 infection demonstrated over a three times [3.1 (95% CI: 2.0, 4.7), p < 0.001] greater rate of concussion compared to high school athletes that did not contract COVID-19. See Table 1 for more details.<\/span><\/p>\n

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What are the key take home points?<\/b><\/p>\n